2026 Thomas Harriot Lecture: Stefano Farinella
The 2026 Thomas Harriot Lecture will be given by Stefano Farinella on Between Epistemology and Manuscript Studies: the Mathematical Notes of Thomas Harriot. Stefano Farinella obtained a BSc in Physics at the University of Padua, and then a MSc in Theoretical Physics at the University of Amsterdam. During his master’s thesis, he studied the different influences in Galileo’s science of the strength of materials. He is now pursuing a doctoral degree in Medieval and Early Modern History at the University of Hamburg, and working as a Research Associate at the Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures. His project focuses on the mathematical notes of Thomas Harriot, following an approach that uses methods from manuscript studies, historical epistemology, physics and mathematics.
About the Thomas Harriot Lecture
The College’s annual Thomas Harriot Lecture was inaugurated in 1990. Revised versions of the lectures delivered since then have been published in three volumes, edited by Robert Fox: Thomas Harriot. An Elizabethan man of science (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2000); Thomas Harriot. Mathematics, exploration, and natural philosophy in early modern England (Farnham: Ashgate, 2012); and Thomas Harriot. Science and discovery in the English Renaissance (London: Routledge, 2023).
About Thomas Harriot
Thomas Harriot, mathematician and natural philosopher, was born in Oxfordshire. He matriculated at Oxford in 1577 as a member of St Mary Hall (which united with Oriel College in 1902) and was awarded a BA degree at Easter 1580.
Harriot’s skills in astronomical navigation led to his employment by Sir Walter Raleigh (another member of Oriel) to teach Raleigh and prepare his sea captains for the voyage that left in 1585 to establish a settlement in America. After spending almost a year at Roanoke, near the coast of today’s North Carolina, Harriot wrote A brief and true report of the new found land of Virginia, the first account of America to be published in English (1588).
Find out more about Thomas Harriot on our Notable Historical Figures and Alumni page.
